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Top Paper in the AEJMC Law & Policy Division

Second Place Paper, National Freedom of Information Coalition FOI Research Competition

Top Paper, National Freedom of Information Coalition Research Paper Competition

First Place, Teaching Ideas Competition in the AEJMC Law & Policy Division

First Place in the Teaching Ideas Contest

Bob Schieffer College of Communication Award for Distinguished Achievement as a Teacher-Scholar

Top Faculty Paper, AEJMC Law & Policy Division Research Paper Competition

Nominated, Dean’s Research Award at TCU

AEJMC : Law and Policy Division

Communication Law & Policy : Associate Editor

Texas Center for Community Journalism

Kappa Tau Alpha : Faculty Advisor

American Association of University Professors

Let's Not Be Dumb: Government Transparency, Public Records Laws, and" Smart City" Technologies

Rise of the copyleft trolls: When photographers sue after creative commons licenses go awry

Freedom of speech and press in Muslim-majority countries

Ghosted by Government: Why Government Entities Should be Required to Respond to Public Records Requests

Secrecy Inc.: How Governments Use Trade Secrets, Purported Competitive Harm and Third-Party Interventions to Privatize Public Records

The Law of Public Communication

Social Media and the Law: A Guidebook for Communication Students and Professionals

Media Law Through Science Fiction: Do Androids Dream of Electric Free Speech?

Daxton “Chip” Stewart’s areas of expertise include media law and communication technology, the First Amendment, freedom of information and public records laws, social media and sports journalism.

Dr. Stewart began his career as a sportswriter before becoming an attorney. He has served as the editor-in-chief of Dispute Resolution Magazine, a city editor and columnist at the Columbia Missourian, and practiced law in Texas. He was co-founding editor of Community Journalism, the online, peer-reviewed official journal of AEJMC’s Community Journalism Interest Group, where he now serves on the editorial board. He is also on the editorial boards of Journal of Media Law & Ethics and International Communication Research Journal.

Media Law

Communication Technology

First Amendment

Freedom of Information

Public Records Law

Social Media

Sports Journalism

Faculty Profile Page 

Google Scholar Citations

Medium Author Page 

Media Law Prof Blog

Bluesky

5 transparency experts say Texas AG Ken Paxton's suit over DA Garza security has merit

Election Deepfakes Prompt State Crackdowns—and First Amendment Concerns

‘Significant public interest’: Media experts defend KVPR's decision to name officer in Fresno police chief scandal

With Cameras Absent, US Public Tunes Out Of Trump Trial Coverage

Nationwide review finds patchwork, ‘broken’ systems for resolving open records disputes

The Right to Lie with AI? First Amendment challenges for state efforts to curb false political speech using deepfakes and synthetic media

Workshop for Communication Law & Policy Special Issue on Media Law Education

The State of the First Amendment Professor: Joys, Challenges and How to Get By With Help From Your Colleagues

Opening the Floodgates: Assessing and Implementing Affirmative Disclosure

Too Many Cases, Too Little Support: How the debate over what instructors teach in Media Law courses is a symptom of institutional changes in mass communication education

Free Inquiry Grant

Adviser Grant

Professor and Assistant Provost for Research Compliance

Professor Stewart is a nationally recognized expert on public records and government transparency. He walks us through the basics of public records laws and values and emphasizes the importance of government transparency to a functioning American democracy. Professor Stewart analyzes the growing trend towards less government transparency and the tactics and technologies governmental bodies use to keep information out of the public domain. Stewart discusses transparency and accountability in the context of higher education and college sports and offers his insights on why universities and athletics departments operate largely in a culture of secrecy. Professor Stewart also explains a recent class assignment in which his students served public records requests on Power 5 schools to obtain information on game-day beer sales. The results may surprise you. Find out who achieved the status of “skunky beer schools” for their lack of transparency.

Note: This episode was recorded on February 24th, 2023. Hyper-linked timestamps are available on our YouTube channel.

Daxton “Chip” Stewart, Professor at Texas Christian University, Transparency and Public Records 101

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